A Guide to the Best Parks for Birthday Parties in LA

Another year older, another year wiser.

August 9, 2018

There are two kinds of people in this world: the ones who love celebrating their birthdays and the others who feel impending doom when turning another year older. No matter which end of the spectrum you fall, a park picnic birthday is a stress-free solution for honoring your special day and dragging a bunch of people along to do it with you. Hooray!

Of course, it all starts with deciding on where to host a birthday party in LA and that can be tricky. You want to be considerate of your friends who live beyond your 5-mile radius. You also want to choose a spot that’s somewhat secluded and not very crowded. Unless you don’t care about being the center of attention. (Of course you don’t. You were born for the spotlight.)

As luck would have it, some of the best parks in LA are also ideal destinations for your little shindig. So stick with us as we show you how to throw a park birthday party your friends won’t mind joining.

You really can’t go wrong at a park that has a pond on which you can ride swan boats, a massive waterspout feature, and a gorg DTLA backdrop. There are plenty of grassy spots to claim and fairly clean-ish public restrooms when ya gotta go. Plus, you may even get to hear a makeshift drum circle meetup if the stars align. Who knows? Maybe they’ll perform the happy birthday song for you.

This little slice of Elysian Park near Dodger Stadium that you didn’t know existed until just now is home to 100 different tree varieties from around the world. Some are even considered to be the oldest in America. And that can only mean you’ll feel (and look) so much younger standing next to them. If quiet and off-the-beaten-path is your thing, this spot is for you.

This one gets overlooked. But we’re here to remind you that if Frank Lloyd Wright can design a house majestic enough for an oil heiress on its grounds then it’s obviously worthy of your birthday party. The grassy hillside offers you and your day-drunk guests a picturesque view of both Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Sign in the near distance. Bonus: Free public art on display inside the air-conditioned Barnsdall Art Park Foundation.

Here’s an idea: Fancy birthday cocktails at Apotheke in Chinatown then continue the festivities at LA State Historic Park. Or the other way around. You decide. This public park offers 32 acres of green space, and some dub it the “Central Park of Los Angeles” even though the two are incomparable on so many levels that we just can’t begin to explain. But! It’s a lovely park with clean bathrooms nonetheless.

So maybe you have to throw a kid’s birthday party or want to host a park BBQ birthday party. This Culver City gem will keep the little ones occupied on all sorts of playground equipment. You’ll also find proper BBQ stations so you don’t have to lug your own grill around. (But if you do, we have a portable grill bundle.)

When you want to be close to the coast, but kinda don’t want to deal with the sand, head to the marina. Here you can post up at a picnic table and watch as your worries about getting older float away like those yachts you'll never be able to afford. Go all out and make it a full-on nautical theme for kicks.

A party is obviously so much more than the destination. Fortunately, we have some no-fail birthday party ideas LA can get behind if you feel stuck. Peep our birthday party rentals then send out the Paperless Post invites stat! We’ll be waiting for ours...